After Hua Hin, we went to Ko Phayam - where we were already in December- for approximately one week. Ko Phayam is a "hippie" island, with a very relaxed vibe, rasta bars and no big chains of shops and supermarkets. However, despite its "remote island" charm, it is getting more and more crowded. New roads and hotels pop up from one month to the other, and when we booked our accomodation, everything was almost sold out.

After one week, we decided that we would like to see also islands that are a bit more remote, and still untouched by big chunks of tourists. So we went to the close-by Ko Chang (not to be confused with the other Ko Chang, in the province of Trat, that we visited in December), that is only a 15 minutes boat ride from Ko Phayam, in the direction of the main land. Ko Chang is more or less the same size than Ko Phayam, it is closer to the main local port on the mainland (Ranong) but barely has roads. When we arrived at the pier, there were a few moto-taxi ready to take us to our bungalow, and it was a 15 minutes ride on small roads in the middle of the jungle. Actually most of what we saw were gum tree plantations, but still a lot of nature. Our bungalow was a simple wooden hut very close to the beach. We loved the hospitality at Sunset Bungalows, and they even had moka coffee 😍.

On the first day we arrived quite early to enjoy the afternoon, and we made a long walk on the beach. This resort was located on one of the longest beaches on the island, and we ended up in a bar on the beach drinking a coconut.

On the second day, we rented a scooter to explore more the island. We drove in the direction of the southern beach, where we visited the stunning Gypsea Home bar and campground. It looked like everything in this place was built with second hand materials, like the toilets used as a seat for the bar 😄. Then we walked along the beach, and we spotted another place built from scratch to resemble a boat. We had lunch and then we slowly headed back to our bungalow. On the way, our scooter was not turning on anymore but we were immediately helped by some Thai people that was casually driving there (we were lucky, the "roads" were pretty empty...).

On our last day in this resort, we explored more the beaches close-by. After some driving in the sand, we reached a nice beach not too far from our accomodation, where we chilled the whole day. Luckily Fabio is a very skilled driver, and he can drive anywhere, despite the challenging routes that sometimes you encounter on these kind of islands 😄. This beach was full of hornbills and basically empty, we liked it very much.

We liked Ko Chang so much, that we decided that we will come back. We wanted to spend the second half of February in the south of Thailand, we would have liked to reach Ko Lipe, but unfortunately everything was fully booked, so we just decided to stay in places that we already know that we like. So we came back on the 13th of February, after visiting Ko Phra Thong, another remote island on the Andaman coast.

This time in Ko Chang we stayed at a different accomodation: at Mama's, a bit secluded from the main beaches, but definitely a good choice. We were lucky: even in Ko Chang everything was fully booked, and this place had a bungalow on the beach with a view on the sunset available for 3 nights. The owner is a real Thai "mama" with an incredible knowledge about German/European kitchen 😄. We were craving western food and we ordered a couple of times Wienerschnitzel and cordon bleu, and they were both excellent!

On the first full day, we hiked directly from our bungalow along the Ao Kai Tao nature trail. It was a nice hike, mostly under gum trees, with some beautiful viewpoints overlooking the sea. We arrived to Ao Kai Tao beach, we chilled some time on the beach, and then we hiked back to our bungalow. The weather was very hot, but we had right enough water and most of the hike was luckily shaded. This hike and a large part of the island is part of a National Park, and at this beach there was a ranger station, but nobody was there at that time. We were basically alone almost the whole time, except for a couple of other hikers met along the way. We enjoyed it very much, including a friendly puppy dog that we met at the beach.

On the second day, I didn't feel the best as a mild cold caught me. So we chilled at our bungalow, enjoying the beach and the view from our terrace. Ko Chang is still a beautiful place, untouched by big hordes of tourists and full of nature. Thailand is getting more and more packed, and there are still a few places that look like this. We are pretty sure one day we will come back 🙂.